Every year I try to visit my Uncle, Aunt and cousins in New Hampshire, about two hours drive North West from Boston. Previously I've only managed to visit in the winter, since they moved there a few years ago (Click to see winter photo's). Visiting in the winter is good, and the town has their very own ski mountain not far away. However, I understand that the town really comes alive, in the summer. The lake isn't that big, probably a few miles wide, and a few miles long, but it has an abundance of coves and islands, making seem much bigger, and giving way to much exploration.

I ran a local marathon a few days after I arrived on this trip (click to see those photo's), and then had plenty of time to relax, and I felt that I'd earned my holiday. I amused myself during the day, when my cousins were at school, and took out the smaller of their two boats; a little Boston Whaler, which is a neat little craft and jets along, with only a single occupant onboard. I spent a good two days exploring the lake, and taking myself out to breakfast / lunch in the boat, which was just fantastic, and a brilliant way to de-stress in an environment, so much better and more relaxing, than the bustle of London life (Photo of the boat). I carried on the small boat my new Peli waterproof case, which can actually float fully laden, so I felt confident my gear was well protected. Far better so than in the small zodiac boats, that I'd ridden in, in the Antarctic some months earlier. I chose to shoot using mostly Fuji Provia film, which gives a more natural effect than Velvia, I've discovered, this was actually my first use of Provia film. I spent at least two hours, on the Loon (bird shots) they're interesting diving birds, that disappeared below the surface, for anything up to a minute I found; and they'd surface some way away. I kept wanting to give up trying to capture the shot, but was persistent, and programmed my camera to AF-Servo, aperture priority, f2.8, and enabled Image Stablising. I'd have just seconds to capture the bird before it dived again, and kept turning the boats engine off, so as not to scare the loon. I'm glad that I bothered though, not just for the shot, but because, spending time on the lake was just brilliant esp. if I had a hot drink on board.